Double winner of the Australian Open (2019 and 2021), the Japanese Naomi Osaka (51st) gave up on Friday in the 3rd round in Melbourne after losing the first set in the tie-break against the Swiss Belinda Bencic (294th).
This is her second withdrawal in a few days, after she threw in the towel in early January in the final of the Auckland tournament against the Dane Clara Tauson (42nd), due to an abdominal injury.
She declared in a post-match press conference that she suffered from the same ailments.
Since the start of the tournament, “we also did everything we could, every day and until the end of the night. So the days were very long for me”she added, specifying that“after my last match, the situation got worse”.
“I have a history since I was a teenager. At least once a year I have abdominal pain”she continued, attributing this problem to her service “quite explosive”.
-Returning to the circuit at the start of 2024, after a long break where she gave birth to a daughter, Osaka played a third round of a Grand Slam on Friday for the first time since 2022, already at the Australian Open.
Bencic, former world 4th gold medalist at the Tokyo Games in 2021, returned to the circuit in October after also giving birth to a daughter.
She will face in the round of 16 the winner of the duel between world No.3 Coco Gauff (3rd) and Canadian Leylah Fernandez (29th), scheduled for 7:00 p.m. in Melbourne (08:00 GMT).
